Keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn

This morning I got to hold Teddy as we watched out our front door while the trash truck cruised down our street. His face shows joy and fascination as the two rough-looking dudes hop on-and-off of the rear of the truck, slinging bags of trash into the back of the rusty, noisy hunk of metal. Teddy glows when the trash guys catch sight of him through the glass door and waive their grungy, gloved hands to acknowledge him. The trash men appear be on his short list of heroes. Grandpa Joe tells Teddy, "There is a lot of money in the trash business." I'll make sure this is better explained to him when the time is right.

One of the toughest things for us to overcome has been the cavalcade of thoughts that come with dreaming about what we, and Simon, will be missing if we do lose him as early as we have been told. Every day brings a "first" for Teddy. Soon, we will get to watch Teddy catch his first fish, take his first swim lesson, ride a bike, and so on. We have great laughs when Teddy does things like call dogs, "bop bops," and we have no idea where he came up with that name. But now Amy and I call dogs "bop bops" too (it's obviously way better than calling a dog a "dog"). Our future with Simon doesn't promise those memories. One of the many ways this past week has changed us is that these times with Teddy only seem that much sweeter.

Our friend Jose has said on multiple occasions that, "a bad Tuesday can change your life." Well, ours was more like a bad Wednesday. As bad as that day was, and despite the fact that we still hurt, we are so thankful for the new perspective God has given us. In just one week we have learned more about life and grace than the last few decades have taught us. Our prayer is that we keep this momentum. A song that is resonating with me today is Mumford and Sons "Below My Feet."